Day 63 - Clean Up Australia Day

Every year on the Friday before Clean Up Australia Day, we have 'Clean Up Australia Day in Schools' where we all traipse outside with a plastic bag and a glove to pick up rubbish. Since the kids have rules about picking up sharps and broken glass, a lot of the time for teachers is spent picking up little pieces of glass that children have spotted. Yes they are obsessed! I worry that we create more rubbish than we collect, what with all of the plastic bags. Plastic bags are pretty much an environmental nightmare if they aren't recycled rather than ending up in the bin. Maybe we need to encourage kids to bring a bucket to school for their collection. I guess it is all about building awareness though and it's a good experience for kids to get out there and pick up after themselves!

Day 14 - Charity Collections Vs Garbage

Around Christmas I noticed that a large number of people must do a big spring clean at this time of year. The thing is, they continue to dump large amounts of rubbish (not sure if they class the rubbish as useful goods) on the outside of charity bins which are full. These charities then have to spend money or use their own man power on cleaning up the rubbish which suddenly becomes their responsibility. I noticed that only a little over a week ago, two guys were sorting through all the rubbish and it took them about an hour. The shot above shows what it looked like today; only one week later. Yes, the pile is just as big. Again it has all been sitting out in the rain which would probably render it all useless (if any of it was good in the first place). Shame people don't take responsibility for their own garbage. We have to look at it every time we drive past it and charities have to clean up after them.